Colors

[Antonious34]

Alright, so I was going over colors and I noticed something that was different with two of my learning sources.

One source tells me that 緑色 is how you would say the color "green."
However, the other source says that 緑　is "green."
I also noticed that the kanji used for white is: 白色　but it's only pronounced しろ instead of しろいろ.
I know that 色　would designate color, but what I am unclear about it whether or not it is always necessary to add 色?
If I were to say　緑　or 青 by themselves, would people assume I meant the color or would I be expected to say 緑色　or 青色 ?

Thanks!

[aKuMu]

緑色 means green color. 緑 alone means just green.
白色 is pronounced はくしょく.

You don't have to always add 色。

[Ezrach]

It's the same in English. "I like green," or, "I like the color green," are both all right.

However, some colors require 色 on the end, such as 黄色, 金色, and 銀色.

[Antonious34]

aKuMu wrote:
白色 is pronounced はくしょく.

I did input はくしょく　to form the same kanji, but aside from that I wasn't able to dig up this pronunciation for white anywhere. Is this just another way to say the color, or is it the main pronunciation that is used?

'Shiro' or 'shiroiro' is all I could find in terms of pronunciation, and it also forms the same kanji.

I also found 'howaido' & 'howaito' to be 'white,' but they don't form kanji anything like 白色.

[aKuMu]

If i enter 白色　for example in edict or dictionary.goo.ne.jp i get はくしょく　as pronunciation

[a_iwai]

白衣 "hakui"

白鳥 "hakutyou"

漂白 "hyouhaku"

It is rare cases that "白色" and "黒色" are reading to "shiroiro" and "kuroiro".

I remembered only this
"白色錐申" : "shiroiro sinkoku"

As in Photoshop, "Black" and "white" are not changed by editing its chroma. So, it is monochrome, but not color. From this reason I think that "黒" and "白" are using without "色" in most cases.

[paulrowe]

Antonious34 wrote:
I also found 'howaido' & 'howaito' to be 'white,' but they don't form kanji anything like 白色.

This would be ホワイト, which is a loan-word from English. Most often, a beginning Japanese student will encounter it in a context similar to the following: こちらはホワイトさんです。 I don't recall ever encountering ホワイト where it was actually referring to the color.

[richvh]

There are, however, English color words that have made their way into common use in Japanese. One that comes to mind is ピンク.

[katafei]

paulrowe wrote:
I don't recall ever encountering ホワイト where it was actually referring to the color.

Except maybe in 「ホワイトデー howaito de- - White Day 」?

howaito

( I haven't worked out this linking business yet, much to my frustration...)
Edit, trying to fix a link

Eureka :p

[keatonatron]

richvh wrote:
There are, however, English color words that have made their way into common use in Japanese. One that comes to mind is ピンク.

And オレンジ.

Recently we've been talking about colors a lot at my school. For some reason I hear グリーン and ブルー a lot, mixed in with the Japanese versions of the same colors.

"こうすると、グリーンになりますね、緑ですね"

I really don't think it's for my benefit, but a lot of my teachers do that.

Maybe... going back to the stoplight conversation, 緑 and 青 aren't always specific, whereas グリーン and ブルー are.

[Ezrach]

One of my Japanese instructors once told our class that there are really only 4 native colors in Japan - 赤、青、白、黒. If you notice, these are modified as い adjectives. Every other color (or at least the concept of giving it a different name) was imported, and you modify it as a な adjective.

You can still see the evidence today - Ever notice that the light is not "緑", it's "青". Or you hear about the "青い草".

[a_iwai]

I'm wondering why we use it so. When a Japanese explain about the meanings of the color of a signal,

青は進め　
"Blue" means "go".
赤は止まれ
"Red" means "stop".
黄色は注意
"Yellow" means "be careful".

It might be explained from the reason Ezrach-san said. Certainly, "赤", "青", "黒" and "白" are often used to express coloring in Japanese sentences, alone. However in addition of "色", "黄色い" and "茶色い" are also available.

[inuinu]

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/kibashiri/20070223/1172201211


このＵＲＬ（日本語赴Lですが）に、色についての色々が語られています。
なぜ「最後に色がつく色と、つかない色があるのか」や
「緑と青の関係」のことなど。
そして、その他の日本語に関してスティーブさんとの面白いやりとりの小話が読めます。
スティーブさんのことを「デブ親父」などと呼んでいるのは、それぐらい気軽な親しい仲
ということだと思います。失礼な日本人のブログだ、などと思わないであげてくださいね
ＵＲＬ先の下部にあるコメント欄も、参考になるコメントが多いように思えます。

形容詞化できる黒、白、赤、青が玄武、白虎、朱雀、青龍から来ているとは
初めて知りました。

[keatonatron]

色色な色　

[a_iwai]

↑

inuinuさん、どうも有り難うございます。
非常に興味深い情報でした。

青龍(seiryuu)
Color: Blue
Season: Spring
Direction: East

朱雀(suzaku)
Color: Red
Season: Summer
Direction: South

白虎(byakko)
Color: White
Season: Autumn
Direction: West

玄武(genbu)
Color: Black
Season: Winter
Direction: North

こうしてみると、必ずしも「白」と「黒」は対比していませんね（語源からも）。